Architecture Portfolio Sofia Focolari
Education Northeastern University Boston
Bachelor in Architecture (Fall Semester), 2019-2020
IE University
Bachelor in Architecture, 2016-2021
City University London
International Political Economy, 2015-2016
Marymount International School of Rome International Baccalaureate, 2013-2015
Collegio San Giuseppe Demerode Liceo Scientifico, 2011-2013
Marymount International School of Rome Primary and Secondary Education, 2002-2011
Languages Italian native
English fluent
Spanish advanced
Personal Highlights Responsabile and Conscientious Driven to Excel Positive Attitude Team Builder
French
beginner
Working Experiences b720 Arquitectos - Fermin Vazquez, Madrid March- June, 2018
Annaaealex Gioielli - Anna Neri, Roma March- June, 2017
Sycamore - Raniero Botti, Roma May- June, 2016
Computer Skills
Extracurricular/Volunteering Member of the IEU Eco Club, Segovia 2017-2019
Member of the Environmental Club, Roma 2013-2016
Volunteer in Costa Rica - WalkingTreeTravel June-July 2012
Kitchen Soup- Caritas, Roma
Whenever back in Rome, since 2015
Located in the Chinatown District in Boston Massachusetts,was designed a library, which responds to the everyday changing needs and technologies of a library. With the purpose of creating an urban edge the library respects and integrates with the surrouding buildings height. There is a free ground plan, constituted by arches which allows for a free circulation and that connects it to the Chinatonw gate (close to it). The volume was inspired to the typology of an Italian “Piazza�, which not only generates greater public space, but creates a surprise oasis in its interior.
Progress + Working Models
COPA_MUSEUM Through a technique of layering (pedestrian, built mass, vegetation, surface, public and private spaces), was developed an urban rearrangement of the Copacabana Coast, and a carnival museum was integrated in the program. Dealing with the existent, many topographic variation have taken place to reestablish centrality, connectivity and order. Moreover, due to an existent issue of connectivity, (between the beach/Museu Militar/The site) was solved by extruding some layers and creating a continuous circulation. Important relationship between the slabs and their supportive system (evident from the exaggerated thickness of the slabs). There is a distinction between vertical and horizontal elements, where the bending platforms and the vertical elements allow circulation from one level to another as well as dividing spaces and serving as exposition walls for the museum. The stairs become part of the system. The reflection of the glass, rather than its transparency, allows visitors to enjoy the view of the forest, which remains a mystery until they are fully within the structure (thanks to the arrangement of the wall system).
Ground 0
Axonometric
2nd Floor
1st Floor
3rd Floor
Progress + Working Models
Sports_Center Escaping from urban chaos and adapting to the existing while connecting various areas of Madrid appears the restoration of the Vicente Calderon Stadium. This last one has been transformed into a green sports center which hosts the world’s most practiced sports as well as offering all types of related facilities. Nature becomes a connective and characteristic of this proect, which consists of a modular approach and trasformation of the Stadium while maintaing its initial structural skeleton, and adapting the program whithin it.
1st Floor
2nd Floor
3rd Floor
4th Floor
Altering the existing structural skelton
Hybrid Collage These two collages were drawn analysing “The Small House� from Saan a Architects, and focusing on the play of light and shadow to recreate reality. Both are a mixture between: colored images, black and white images and pencil d r a w i n g s .
Architecture
as a Frame
I selected a treshold in Lina Bo Bardi’s Glass House and negotiated between the interior and exterior spaces, trying to find a relationship. From that study I came up with a final model which is an abstract representation of nature “breaking into” the interior space and v i c e - v e r s a .
Jewlery Design As an intern for Annaealex (an Italian Luxury jewlery brand), I had the opportunity of designing and seeing some of their incredible earrings realized. I worked with Autocad and Rhinoceros to create prototypes and prepare the files for cutting /filling the plated gold.
Sofia Focolari sfocolari.ieu2016@student.ie.edu +39 339 335 68566